Waste

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

Second verse, same as the first. The Angels got their second crack at Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale in six days, and just like they did Sunday night in U.S. Cellular Field, they looked helpless against the 6-foot-6, 180-pound left-hander. Sale gave up three hits in 72/3 shutout innings Friday night in Angel Stadium, striking out 12 and walking three, to lead the White Sox to a 3-0 victory that dropped the Angels, who have lost five of six games, to 15-27 on the season. Combined with his one-hit shutout Sunday night, Sale, 24, threw 162/3 scoreless innings against the Angels this week, giving up four hits and striking out 19. In five career games against the Angels, two in relief, Sale has held them to a .114 average (nine for 79)

You might have seen the promo. "So Thrilling. So Explosive. So Brash. So Bold. So Fresh. So Fox." And now it must be said of the Fox News affiliate in Los Angeles: So diminished. So wretched. So . . . so. Executives at Channel 11 announced the layoff of roughly one-quarter of the news staff a couple of weeks ago, a "Black Friday" bloodletting that had veteran reporter John Schwada regretting the loss of "a lot of good young people, with energy and dreams."

The Clippers' public relations department sent out a notice announcing none of their players would be available Wednesday. It wasn't surprising to hear they lacked the backbone to own up to their own disappearing act a night earlier. The PR notice said the players would be available to talk Thursday at 11:15 p.m. I'm sure the Clippers meant 11:15 a.m., but then I wonder - maybe they don't want anyone talking to them. Why didn't they schedule exit interviews for the players Wednesday?

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways to maximize your time in the park and get on the most rides possible. PHOTOS: How to do Disneyland in a day So in honor of Disneyland's 24-hour Leap Day celebration , here are my seven tips for tackling Disneyland in a day: Tip 1: If you're trying to get the most out of your day at Disneyland , I always recommend arriving just before the park opens in the morning, staying until the park closes at night and taking a long break in the heat of the afternoon at your hotel pool or cocktail bar. It may sound like a long day, but you'll get more done in the first two hours and the last two hours of your day than if you spent 15 hours straight at the park.

It's raining. It's pouring. Or at least it was at 4 in the morning a couple of Saturdays ago. And though no old men were snoring in my vicinity, some sprinklers were watering lawns, rain or no rain. It was waste in its purest form because during and after a downpour the water runs right off the saturated soil into the street. Turning curbs into waterfalls is a side effect of technology that lets us run sprinklers on timers that we set and forget. In theory, they allow watering at optimal but inconvenient times, such as early morning, when cooler air minimizes evaporation.

In San Luis Obispo County, a 20-year-old drug abuser who was the sole caretaker for his seriously disabled father provided such poor care that, according to the grand jury in that county, the father frequently had bedsores, he was not properly cleaned, adult protective services had to be called in and, ultimately, he died before he was 60 years old. Incredibly, the son was being paid by the state, through the In-Home Supportive Services Program, for this substandard care.

Dirk and Friends barely hit the pause button. The Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki completed their two-night sweep through Staples Center, picking apart the Lakers via pick and roll and then bookending it with a 93-84 victory over the Clippers on Saturday night. No Halloween jokes are necessary here. The Clippers' early record speaks for itself, and they failed to score in the final 4:42 of the game. They are 0-4 and two losses from matching their woeful start of last season.

More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico. Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest.

KCAL's show "Grudge Match" (Sat., 11 p.m.) is about as amusing as watching my parents' home videos. And between the show's submarine sandwich and pasta fights, much food is wasted which could be used to feed the homeless. Thumbs down! Alli Magidsohn, Northridge

We have a major difference of opinion. And I understand why you are wrong. You began the season thinking, and being told by the media, the Lakers were going to be great because they had so much talent. You didn't get it in the first five games, so Mike Brown was dismissed as coach. Then you heard they were talking to Phil Jackson only to hear Mike D'Antoni announced as new coach. You're not used to being so disappointed by Lakers management. You might have to adjust your thinking.

WASHINGTON - For more than a decade, conservative Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has formed an unusual alliance with liberals on an unexpected topic - the defense of marijuana. Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and his allies have so far waged a futile effort to pass legislation that would prevent federal authorities from interfering with medical marijuana use in California and other places where pot use is permitted by state law. But as more states have moved to allow the drug's use, Rohrabacher believes his Respect State Marijuana Laws Act may be gaining momentum in Congress.

California needs to change the way it fills state legislative vacancies. Current law requires a special election that often creates a chaotic, costly and time-consuming process of legislative musical chairs. The state soon will have had half a dozen legislative special elections this year, and easily could have at least another half-dozen to fill vacancies later this year. Why so many legislative vacancies that trigger special elections? First, term limits. Termed-out legislators often leave old jobs early for new elected positions.

On a recent evening, students at Pomona College feasted on chicken pot pie, steamed veggies, biscuits and rice. And, as is often the case, there were plenty of leftovers in the dining hall, enough for about 100 extra meals. Those leftovers, however, weren't destined for the dumpster. Instead, they were carefully packaged by dining hall workers, handed to a group of students and driven to nearby Inland Valley Hope Partners, a nonprofit shelter for people in need. Pomona College's efforts to keep prepared food from going to waste are part of a nationwide coalition of student groups called the Food Recovery Network, which estimates that about 22 million meals are thrown away at U.S. colleges every year.

In response to Jonah Goldberg's Op-Ed on Tuesday, " The wisdom of Dan Quayle ": What? It's been 20 years since the Murphy Brown-Dan Quayle feud, and we're still talking about this? I suppose I should be flattered. And not surprised. After all, we're still talking about glass ceilings and Roe vs. Wade and what constitutes "legitimate rape. " But because history, like a hit television series, repeats itself, let's revisit 1992.  For those of you too young to remember (or too old to recall)

A toxic waste dump near the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Kettleman City has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last four years, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Wednesday. Brian Johnson, the department's deputy director of enforcement, described the fines as "a substantial and aggressive penalty. " The penalties were part of a settlement that capped an investigation into the Chemical Waste Management facility, the only one in California licensed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a carcinogen.

I would like to comment on the article regarding the Navy and myself ("Reprimanded Navy Doctor Cites Example of Waste," July 4). Unfortunately the story missed the point entirely. The real issue, besides the waste of $25,000, was the abuse of the system. Linda Monroe didn't mention the fact that the servicewoman worked for Adm. (Edward) Baker and thus received preferential treatment. In addition, (the story) seems to suggest that Dr. (Carl) Hartrampf (Jr.) "turned down" this patient when in fact the only reason we couldn't (operate on)

I read your editorial titled "Shared Tragedy" (March 15). In it you say that the Penn trial is a tragedy shared by the black community and the Police Department. But really the retrial is a tragedy shared by everyone in the county. The district attorney is wasting $1 million on a case he could not win a year ago and in which there has been nothing new to help him. That million dollars comes from the pockets of everyone. The expenditure of the million dollars for the trial means that the wrecks will not be picked up from the highways, the new jail is just a little further from being accomplished, the sheriff will take a little longer to react to a crime, the parks will be a little more littered, and so on. The million dollars could be so much better spent on so many other things than sending a man to prison for a couple of years.

Sometimes it's hard to do good. For example, donating leftover banquet food to charity. Shirley Wei Sher, a Marina del Rey immigration lawyer, discovered how challenging this can be when she recently tried to prevent leftovers at an upcoming meeting of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Assn. from being thrown away. Sher, 33, sits on the board of the organization and is helping plan the group's annual awards banquet at a Chinatown restaurant next month. As many as 1,000 people are expected to attend.

Re "Officials roll with AEG's punches," March 16 While riding a shuttle home from Los Angeles International Airport after returning from a business trip last week, I passed Exposition Park, with its multitude of venues. As a native Angeleno who remembers visiting the museums, attending the circus at the Sports Arena and watching Rams games at the Coliseum, I was struck with nostalgia. How ironic to read just after that about the turmoil surrounding the canceled sale of entertainment giant AEG and the doubtful future of the football stadium it planned on building in downtown L.A. I understand that the neighborhood around USC has changed dramatically over the years, but given this development, are we absolutely certain that nothing can be done to revitalize what's right in front of us?